How to write a SQL DELETE statement with a SELECT statement in the WHERE clause?

Question

Database: Sybase Advantage 11

On my quest to normalize data, I am trying to delete the results I get from this SELECT statement:

SELECT          


        

Answer 1

You need to identify the primary key in TableA in order to delete the correct record. The primary key may be a single column or a combination of several columns that uniquely identifies a row in the table. If there is no primary key, then the ROWID pseudo column may be used as the primary key.

DELETE FROM tableA
WHERE ROWID IN 
  ( SELECT q.ROWID
    FROM tableA q
      INNER JOIN tableB u on (u.qlabel = q.entityrole AND u.fieldnum = q.fieldnum) 
    WHERE (LENGTH(q.memotext) NOT IN (8,9,10) OR q.memotext NOT LIKE '%/%/%')
      AND (u.FldFormat = 'Date'));

Answer 2

Shouldn't you have:

DELETE FROM tableA WHERE entitynum IN (...your select...)

Now you just have a WHERE with no comparison:

DELETE FROM tableA WHERE (...your select...)

So your final query would look like this;

DELETE FROM tableA WHERE entitynum IN (
    SELECT tableA.entitynum FROM tableA q
      INNER JOIN tableB u on (u.qlabel = q.entityrole AND u.fieldnum = q.fieldnum) 
    WHERE (LENGTH(q.memotext) NOT IN (8,9,10) OR q.memotext NOT LIKE '%/%/%')
      AND (u.FldFormat = 'Date')
)

Answer 3

in this scenario:

DELETE FROM tableA
WHERE (SELECT q.entitynum
FROM tableA q
INNER JOIN tableB u on (u.qlabel = q.entityrole AND u.fieldnum = q.fieldnum) 
WHERE (LENGTH(q.memotext) NOT IN (8,9,10) 
OR q.memotext NOT LIKE '%/%/%')
AND (u.FldFormat = 'Date'));

aren't you missing the column you want to compare to? example:

DELETE FROM tableA
WHERE entitynum in (SELECT q.entitynum
FROM tableA q
INNER JOIN tableB u on (u.qlabel = q.entityrole AND u.fieldnum = q.fieldnum) 
WHERE (LENGTH(q.memotext) NOT IN (8,9,10) 
OR q.memotext NOT LIKE '%/%/%')
AND (u.FldFormat = 'Date'));    

I assume it's that column since in your select statement you're selecting from the same table you're wanting to delete from with that column.

Answer 4

Your second DELETE query was nearly correct. Just be sure to put the table name (or an alias) between DELETE and FROM to specify which table you are deleting from. This is simpler than using a nested SELECT statement like in the other answers.

Corrected Query (option 1: using full table name):

DELETE tableA
FROM tableA
INNER JOIN tableB u on (u.qlabel = tableA.entityrole AND u.fieldnum = tableA.fieldnum) 
WHERE (LENGTH(tableA.memotext) NOT IN (8,9,10)
OR tableA.memotext NOT LIKE '%/%/%')
AND (u.FldFormat = 'Date')

Corrected Query (option 2: using an alias):

DELETE q
FROM tableA q
INNER JOIN tableB u on (u.qlabel = q.entityrole AND u.fieldnum = q.fieldnum) 
WHERE (LENGTH(q.memotext) NOT IN (8,9,10) 
OR q.memotext NOT LIKE '%/%/%')
AND (u.FldFormat = 'Date')

More examples here:
How to Delete using INNER JOIN with SQL Server?

Answer 5

Did something like that once:

CREATE TABLE exclusions(excl VARCHAR(250));
INSERT INTO exclusions(excl)
VALUES
       ('%timeline%'),
       ('%Placeholders%'),
       ('%Stages%'),
       ('%master_stage_1205x465%'),
       ('%Accessories%'),
       ('%chosen-sprite.png'),
('%WebResource.axd');
GO
CREATE VIEW ToBeDeleted AS 
SELECT * FROM chunks
       WHERE chunks.file_id IN
       (
       SELECT DISTINCT
             lf.file_id
       FROM LargeFiles lf
       WHERE lf.file_id NOT IN
             (
             SELECT DISTINCT
                    lf.file_id
             FROM LargeFiles lf
                LEFT JOIN exclusions e ON(lf.URL LIKE e.excl)
                WHERE e.excl IS NULL
             )
       );
GO
CHECKPOINT
GO
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE @r INT;
SET @r = 1;
WHILE @r>0

BEGIN
    DELETE TOP (10000) FROM ToBeDeleted;
    SET @r = @@ROWCOUNT  
END
GO